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Chichester
Psalms
Twenty-three years after Bernstein
wrote the Jeremiah Symphony, (1949)
he wrote the Chichester Psalms.
These psalms are a combination of psalms
100 and 108 which are called the
thanksgiving prayers. They are prayers
praising G-d. The piece was composed for a
festival in Chichester, England. The
prayer is in Hebrew because Bernstein felt
most comfortable writing it in Hebrew.
Since it was perform ed in England, he
used Protestant customs in the
performance. For example, the soloist was
a male soprano who was around the age of
twelve when the piece was first performed.
The piece includes many musical
instruments, mainly the organ, percussion,
and bells.
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Dybbuk
The Dybbuk , (Suite #2) was written in 1974. It
was based on an old Yiddish folk song which has an
old philosophical riddle within it: "Fragt die welt
an alte kashe?" (Does the world asks an old
question?). To this there is only the answer "tra
di ri di ram", or "tei di dam", which means
nothing. No one knows or understands what the
question mean s -- the riddle remains unsolved.
This same subject was dealt with in purely
instrumental terms by Charles Ives in 1908, with
his The Unanswered Question. A "Dybbuk" in Yiddish
means a "disembodied spirit looking for a living
body to enter."
In our opinion, Bernstein's Judaism must have
meant a lot to him, or he would not have let it
influence him in the best known part of his life -
music. He associated with both Jewish and
non-Jewish friends and working partners. He even
realized that his training as child at Temple
Mishkan Tefila influenced him when he wrote the
music for West Side Story.
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Kaddish
Bernstein wrote his third symphony,
Kaddish in 1963. Kaddish is
the Jewish prayer for the dead. It is
recited at all synagogue services, yet
there is no mention of death in the poem.
Bernstein was not happy with the original
version and re-wrote Kaddish in
1977. In a press conference he said," I
was not satisfied with the original. There
was too much talk. The piece is
essentially the same, only better. it is
tighter and shorter. There are some cuts,
some musical re-writing and a lot of
re-writing of the spoken text. The
American press reactions to the original
version read, "mustn't be missed!" and "a
melodramatic tearjerker!" In Israel, the
world premiere of Kaddish was
enthusiastically received as well.
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